


This is a tale of two cities.

by MFLuder



Category: DC Extended Universe
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, M/M, SuperBat so brief you could blink and miss it, of the cities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 13:56:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18661765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MFLuder/pseuds/MFLuder
Summary: Twin cities, twin heroes; two sides to the same coin.





	This is a tale of two cities.

**Author's Note:**

> My first completed DC fic. I essentially wrote it as a way to layout my own comparisons and concept of the two cities to set up future fics. I've always most enjoyed the occasional canon of Gotham and Metropolis being cities next to one other (with the exception of _Smallville_ canon where Metropolis reads like Kansas City to me) and I wanted to play with that. So, thanks DCEU!
> 
> Thanks to [silivren-vera](https://silivren-vera.tumblr.com/) for looking through this for me!

How is it possible for a set of twins to be so remarkably different? The cities span state borders, sure, separated by a river and a bay, but here, it is like the border is an invisible barrier, letting people and bridges through but nothing else. The Metro-Narrows Bridge spans the two cities and after more than a century, no one remembers where the demarcation line is. 

Gotham is dark and brooding; gothic and industrial. The smog sits above Gotham like San Francisco fog, thick and ever-present, yet it never seems to creep to the other side. Metropolis shines like a new penny; bustling with finance and tech sectors, all chrome and glass. 

Metropolis in autumn is crisp and carries the scent of apples though the nearest orchard is thirty minutes outside the suburbs. The tree-lined medians turn a brilliant landscape of golds, reds, maroon, and copper. Scarecrows mean nothing to the city except as a decoration for townhome doorsteps. Everyone carries a cup of coffee, a pumpkin spice latte, or tea as they bustle between work and planning for the various holidays of the season.

Gotham suffers through fall in rain and sleet, the world darkening slowly as winter creeps in early. Only the parks have trees and their leaves turn brown and dry quick, fluttering despondently across boulevards. The high point is seeing the ivy-covered buildings turn a shade of golden-brown for a week before the plants shrivel into drab vines. Fall holds a particular sense of fear for many of Gotham’s citizens; Halloween is the worst night of the year with clowns and jokesters and bats running rampant and free.

Winter in Metropolis is picture perfect with a sharp cold that bites playfully at the nose. Snow almost always seems to only fall on Fridays and even then, it’s big fat flakes that rarely impede the drive home. The streets are quickly cleared, and people with rosy cheeks walk briskly but friendly, a “it’s a chilly day today isn’t it?” on their lips.

Winter in Gotham is cruel, more grey than white. The snow melts but builds into slush and those on the sidewalks must be careful of the cars that zip through too quickly, flinging the remnants. When snow falls, it falls heavy and fast and people walk quick but silent and cranky, everyone too concerned with getting home and off the streets for manners.

Spring may be the one time of year when the cities match each other, a slow turning of death into life and both cities feature people wearing shorts a little too early for the sake of being able to without threat of frostbite. Flowers bloom and allergies spike.

Spring is shorter in Gotham though, as quick to leave as winter is to settle in early, making way for a humid summer that feels oppressive, the city’s swampy origin making itself known. Gotham’s people walk around drenched in sweat most of summer, desperate to get away from one another and into air-conditioned buildings – also limited in the inner city which only has window units if anything. A walk downtown features open windows with the sounds of tinny baseball games emanating from TVs and laundry drying in between buildings. The housing areas squeak with chain link fences and the grass is as dull as the dust in back alleys. Food stands make the city smell delicious but saturate the air with oil that collects with the sweat.

In Metropolis, summer bursts on the scene with energy and vivaciousness, trees turning brilliant emerald almost overnight. It’s hot, and there’s plenty of friendly complaining about the heat, especially in the spaces where it reflects off glass and comes up from the sidewalk grates, but it’s rarely a damp heat. Dads (and moms) play catch with their kids in yards and downtown parks; city pools are gleaming and bustling.

Even similar income brackets look different between the two. Gotham elite are erudite, old money, built on bribes and long-term investments in land, rail, and old energy sources, with a sprinkling of lawyers and academics. They wear real fur coats and dine in baroque restaurants, gleaming with gild and dark velvet, the food as rich as the decor. The hip spots are former speakeasys and nightclubs built out of former cathedrals. Everyone dresses in the latest Italian and French designers with a smattering of eastern European; Bruce Wayne tends to be the trendsetter in Armani and Lagerfeld designs. The young bourgeoise flaunt a neo-avant-garde aesthetic: its black befitting Gotham, but its minimalism utterly in contrast to the sweeping geometry of its gothic architecture. The high districts are filled with Aston Martin, Benz, and Rolls Royce.

Metropolis rich, however, are new money and they flaunt it with battery-powered Tesla’s, Apple iWatches, and the latest in conversations regarding Signal and Tor, and vague political commentary about free college for all. They look as fancy as Gotham elite, but their clothes are from barely heard of designers who are always “up and coming” and more likely to be featured in Dubai runway shows than Paris Fashion Week; it’s all eco-friendly, of course. They attend Sundance and bemoan the state of the world and all those poor kids in Africa while extolling new green deals and solar power. After all, their very hero is powered by the sun, why not their homes? Print journalism is still a thing, a strange contradiction in a city so focused on technology, yet so quintessentially hipster of it. The papers adapt with ereader versions and paid digital subscriptions and the city is proud of its Pulitzer Prize-winning homegrown Lois Lane. They dine in sleek Asian-inspired restaurants that cater to crowds of ten for meals in which there are no substitutions – except for gluten-free, nut-free, and vegan appetites. Clubs are boxy, made with metal and in the few remaining old warehouses – as bright as they are dark with neon lights bathing everyone in a cyberpunk tint.

The poor, too, are different. Metropolis inner city schools are all privatized charter schools, giving a shiny coating to the playground and mechanical pencils from the early 2000’s and students all have textbooks from at least 2005. Once-tenement housing has been rebuilt as lower income housing sponsored by a state government that believes in welfare for its less fortunate citizens. One hardly sees a homeless individual on a stoop. They have city-sponsored skate parks, sports teams, and art programs. Metropolis’ poor are mostly white and will go on to win college, Rhodes, and Fulbright scholarships with their tales of heartache over their parents’ divorce and the economic effects it had on their lives.

Gotham’s poverty is stark, and its faces are black, Chinese, and a few remnants from the eastern European immigration boom in the 1880’s. Gotham tenements still stand as they did in 1900. There is a significantly higher number of orphanages in Gotham than Metropolis given the city’s crime rate. It still has a prison just off city center and several juvenile delinquent facilities. Arkham Asylum, too, stands majestic and foreboding just outside the city, the country’s oldest insane asylum, modernized as the top mental health facility in the state. Alternative schools are common in each district and all inner-city schools are public run, featuring metal detectors and haggard looking teachers who do their best with textbooks not updated since the 1970’s. Gangs are rampant and twelve-year-olds sell weed on the corner in an effort to support their families in between periods of no work. Little girls (and boys) go missing and turn up in Missouri truck stops, if they turn up at all. The best work is on the docks, but it’s also the most dangerous. Gotham poor are forgotten by a state that is in a race-to-the bottom for corporation dollars in an effort to gentrify the city and support its more rural coal-based towns. If you’re below the poverty line in Gotham, your best bet out isn’t college but the military.

Crime in Gotham happens in the dark: brutal, gun-wrought, desperate, and mean. Crime in Metropolis involves a lot more hacking of computers, embezzlement, and the rare daylight jewelry store robbery. Gotham has crime families; Metropolis has corporations.

It only stands to reason that these cities would have dramatically different heroes. Gotham’s knight is as dark as his city; aggressive, paranoid, violent, leaving behind a brand and broken legs. He’s mysterious and more urban legend than real. Tales of him vary from gibbering hardened criminals who speak of ghosts and a monster not quite human while children speak of shadows swooping them up and kind eyes. The Bat is more avenging than guardian; an angel of the Old Testament.

Metropolis’ son is as bright as the saturated colors of the city. He is both incomprehensible and surprisingly more touchable than expected; Metropolis citizens are never afraid to reach out and touch his cloak and many believe he is the second coming – more so after his return. He is a calm and paternal presence to everyone, criminal and child alike, always offering a small smile and a serene look of either approval or disappointment depending on which he is interacting with. He stands above them, alien, but he is theirs and he means there is hope for a better tomorrow.

One would expect these two cities to have nothing in common, for the cities to hate each other, for trade and government interaction to be limited. Yet, like most twins, the cities are inseparable despite all odds and have the strongest sister-city relationship in the country. So strong that they sponsored an interstate compact between their states that Congress had to approve. Metropolis dollars flow into Gotham and vice versa. The port remains busy on both sides for legitimate and illegal trade. While each city’s citizens disparage the other amongst themselves, and there’s no tougher rivalry than that of the Knights and the Giants, if a Star City individual dared to condemn a Gothamite to a Metropolis person, that Star Cityer would quickly find themselves _persona non grata_ in Metropolis.

And so, perhaps it wouldn’t be surprising, to those you asked, to find out that the twin cities' heroes might meet at the times when dawn met day or twilight met night and stand in companionable silence or speak with friendly banter and offer aid in case the other wanted it (for neither required it). They might be more intrigued to know that a hand on the shoulder sometimes became a kiss, but even then, both sets of city folk prided themselves on being indifferent to someone’s personal lifestyle choices. 

Day; Night. Superman; Batman. Metropolis; Gotham. Twin cities, twin heroes; two sides to the same coin. United against the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow and chat with me [on tumblr](http://mf-luder-xf.tumblr.com)!


End file.
